West Village, Southwest Detroit and Livernois-McNichols
are first targets

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan speaks about the Detroit Strategic Neighborhood Initiative in the city's West Village neighborhood.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is to announce Wednesday morning that it has made a grant of $5 million toward a $30 million Strategic Neighborhood Fund to drive inclusive economic growth in Detroit's neighborhoods.

The fund will support the Detroit Strategic Neighborhood Initiative, a collaborative partnership between Invest Detroit, the Detroit Development Fund and the Opportunity Resource Fund.

The new fund will dedicate resources toward commercial and residential real estate, jobs and community infrastructure in three Detroit neighborhoods — West Village, Southwest Detroit and Livernois-McNichols — over the next decade.

City officials, business leaders and community organizations were among those present for the official announcement Wednesday morning at Van Dyke Street and Coe Avenue in West Village, where Clifford Brown is developing a mixed-use building with 11-13 residential units and another 1,100 square feet of retail.

"This announcement from J. P. Morgan Chase is another example of its deep commitment to Detroit and revitalizing its neighborhoods," Mayor Mike Duggan said in a news release. "Thanks to this funding, we are going to start seeing new small businesses open, existing businesses expand and new residential developments take place in several key areas of the city. This fits in perfectly with our strategy to revitalize our neighborhoods."

This newest grant is part of Chase's $125 million, five-year neighborhoods initiative in cities around the country. It will help finance 12 key multi-unit residential, business and mixed-use developments, four in each neighborhood, to create density and tie in with bus and and other essential services.

The Strategic Neighborhood fund recently received $4 million from a grant from Reimagining the Civic Commons, a national initiative to revitalize and connect public spaces in urban areas.

"J.P. Morgan Chase's $5 million award provides a variety of financing resources to elevate core strengths in three distinct neighborhoods, while creating a development template to apply in additional neighborhoods," said Dave Blaszkiewicz, president and CEO of Invest Detroit.

Atlanta, Chicago, Miami and New York also got $5 million grants, the first from the five-year neighborhoods initiative.